Strategic Partners: Vietnam and the Philippines

On November 17, Vietnam and the Philippines signed a new strategic partnership to boost their ties on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila.

The idea of a strategic partnership between the two nations is not a new one. It dates back to May 2014, when Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung began publicly expressing interest in taking their relationship to the next level. Since then, both sides have been convening a Joint Working Committee to consider the idea. A draft agreement has been in the works for a while and parts of it were leaked earlier this year.

The much anticipated partnership agreement, witnessed by Aquino and his visiting Vietnamese counterpart President Truong Tan Sang, finally took place alongside this year’s two-day APEC summit, which focused on trade.

“This is indeed a historic event, marking a new era for cooperation between our two countries,” Sang said following the inking of the pact.

While much of the media attention has focused narrowly on the strategic partnership as an indication of Manila and Hanoi’s growing convergence as fellow Southeast Asian claimants in the South China Sea disputes facing China’s growing assertiveness, the agreement itself aims to elevate ties between the two sides more generally.

In particular, according to a copy of the joint statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership seen by The Diplomat, the focus is on boosting relations in seven key functional areas: political; economic; defense, security, judiciary, and law enforcement; maritime and ocean affairs; scientific and technical; sociocultural; and multilateral cooperation.

The political and economic areas focus generally on strengthening the overall architecture of cooperation with an eye on the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties in 2016. These include boosting bilateral exchanges, setting up more joint commissions and dialogues to strengthen the partnership, and boosting bilateral trade to achieve “a landmark level” of trade and investment. At the biennial Vietnam-Philippines Bilateral Cooperation Committee meeting last month, the country’s two foreign ministers reportedly agreed on a two-way target of a modest $3 billion in trade by 2016.

In the defense and maritime areas, the Philippines and Vietnam agreed to intensify cooperation between their armed services leading to the eventual holding of actual joint activities between their two navies. They will also convene a new Vietnam-Philippines Joint Commission on Maritime and Ocean Cooperation at the vice-minister level. Unsurprisingly, there is direct reference to the South China Sea in this section, with the two countries agreeing to conduct “appropriate joint activities” in the area. No specific reference was made in the document to joint drills even though both sides have previously indicated that they are open to the idea further down the line.

There are also some notable developments in the science and technical areas as well as within sociocultural cooperation. On science and technical cooperation, a new technical working group will be established on climate and marine environment. The two sides will also work towards the conclusion of a Vietnam-Philippines protocol on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. And in the sociocultural sphere, they will collaborate on a new pact to open up more exchanges between their two countries regarding language training, history, culture, and the arts.

With respect to multilateral cooperation, the last of the seven areas, most of the focus is on collaboration in various regional and global forums including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization. But it is also worth noting that three of the nine paragraphs in this portion of the statement focused on the South China Sea, stressing the sanctity of international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), counseling self-restraint, and reiterating the urgent need for an early conclusion of a binding code of conduct in the South China Sea.

That should come as no surprise considering the fact that the Philippines is currently pursuing a case against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and a decision is expected sometime in the middle of next year. Though Vietnam has not joined the Philippine case, it did submit its own statement to the court and Hanoi is waiting to see how proceedings play out before determining whether it should also pursue the legal route.

While the pact has been signed, the hard work of setting up the architecture of the strategic partnership as well as advancing functional cooperation across a range of areas will continue. This is especially the case over the course of the next year as Vietnam and the Philippines commemorate the 40th anniversary of relations. The good news, though, is that both countries have experience in developing such partnerships. This is the Philippines’ second strategic partner after Japan, while Vietnam has variations of strategic and comprehensive partnerships with several countries.